Sony and Intel partner with high school students to find lost ships

There’s little more mysterious than the final resting places of ships lost at sea. Whether they’re ancient vessels that carried doomed explorers around the globe or trade ships sunk by pirates, enemy navies, or simple treachery, they’re all waiting beneath the waves for someone to find them. Now Intel, Sony, and a group of eight high school students from Michigan have joined forces to search for – and hopefully find – a real sunken ship.

The event is called “Project Shiphunt,” and is part of a partnership with Sony, Intel, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientist Dr. James Delgado to encourage science and technology education in US high schools. The eight lucky Michigan students will work to find a lost ship in their own backyard: at the bottom of the Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes used to be a hub for American commerce, and many major ports were located there. The students will start their hunt at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan, and armed with Sony VAIO laptops with Intel Core processors will set off to find a sunken vessel.

To drum up interest in the project, Sony and Intel have built a Google Earth game called Oceans of Treasure where players are encouraged to search the globe for the latest Sony and Intel technology and then go hunting for a lost ship of their own. Each week, a new shiphunting challenge will be revealed in the game, and players can compete to win prizes from Sony.

Project Shiphunt comes just over a year after Sony and Intel’s “Rocket Project,” where a group of students, again armed with Sony VAIO laptops and Intel processors worked to launch a rocket in the Nevada desert. The launch was successful, and while the rocket didn’t exactly make orbit, it did prove that the students could design, build, schedule, and launch their own rocket all on their own. Now we get to see if a similar group of students will be able to locate a sunken vessel in the Great Lakes using their wits, education, and Sony gear.